1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a lubricant supply device, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
An image forming apparatus, such as copier and printer, employing a lubricant supply device is known. The lubricant supply device is adapted to supply lubricant to an image bearing member such as photoreceptor drum or intermediate transfer belt.
In such an image forming apparatus, a toner image is formed on a photoreceptor drum and then transferred onto a transfer medium. Residual toner particles remaining on the photoreceptor drum without being transferred onto the transfer medium are generally removed by a cleaning blade disposed in contact with the photoreceptor drum. In cases where the cleaning blade gets chipped due to friction with the photoreceptor drum, residual toner particles may pass through a gap formed between the chipped cleaning blade and the photoreceptor drum and may fixedly accumulate on the photoreceptor drum, which is undesirable.
One attempt to solve this problem involves applying a lubricant to the photoreceptor drum to reduce friction coefficient thereof, so that the cleaning blade is prevented from being abraded or chipped as well as the photoreceptor drum is prevented from deteriorating.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-305907 discloses a lubricant supply device including a brush-like roller (i.e., lubricant supply roller) slidably contactable with a photoreceptor belt (i.e., image bearing member), a solid lubricant in contact with the brush-like roller, a compressed spring for biasing the solid lubricant against the brush-like roller. The brush-like roller scrapes the solid lubricant off by rotating in a predetermined direction and applies (supplies) it to the surface of the image bearing member.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 07-271142 discloses a lubricant supply device in which the amount of lubricant to be supplied from a lubricant supply roller to an intermediate transfer belt (i.e., image bearing member) is increased by increasing the revolution of the lubricant supply roller when the environmental temperature and humidity are beyond predetermined ranges.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-62163 discloses a lubricant supply device having a temperature sensor for detecting the surface temperature of a photoreceptor drum (i.e., image bearing member). Operation of the lubricant supply device is controlled based on a result detected by the temperature sensor.